Rock Hill, SC Homelessness & Encampment Rules: Sit-Lie Rules (2026)

Section 26-17, adopted by Ordinance No. C. § 5-7-30, the state's general grant of municipal police power. The obstruction rule at subsection (c) is not an automatic sit-lie ban: a person breaks the law only after a law enforcement officer has directed them to move on and they remain standing, lying, or sitting so as to impede free passage on a sidewalk, street, alley, or other public property. The code separately regulates 'camping' on public property (sunset-to-sunrise dwelling, storing belongings, tents, cooking fires, or digging), banning it except by permit, but subsection (e)(5) instructs officers not to enforce that camping ban against an individual on public property when no 'available overnight shelter' exists, defined as free shelter space open to the person regardless of any prior refusal for intoxication, drug use, or a shelter-rule violation.

The disorderly conduct clause on occupying a building or vehicle without permission carries the same shelter carve-out at (d)(2). Sidewalk cafes operating under a city permit are expressly excluded from both the obstruction and camping prohibitions. 'Public property' is defined to include streets, sidewalks, parkways, parks, playgrounds, and other public places within the city, and 'parkway' reaches the strip between the curb and the abutting property line.